Various farmers from Dhamne village protested and did not allow the PWD surveyor to survey their lands for the proposed Halga Machhe Bypass.
The farmers are agitating for the same since the plan was made. The PWD department had started the survey work in Alarwad, Halga, sighting this the farmers decided they wont allow for the bye pass from their fields. The Sheti Bachao Samiti has now decided to take the matter to the court.
The farmers from Halga, Old Belgaum, Angol, Vadgaon, Machhe & Peeranwadi had approached the government in 2010 asking them to divert the bypass from unfertile land along the Rajhunsgad area.
Fertile farm land has been ordered to be acquired for the Machhe- Halga bypass part of the Hyderabad -Panjim national highway. More than 500 complaints were received from farmers from Mache, Peeranwadi, Vadgaon, Angol and Khanapur areas.
Why is the Need for the Bypass:
The proposed bypass will commence at NH4 and will pass through Old Belgaum, Vadgaon, Majgaon, Angol reaching NH4A at Peeranwadi-Macche, which the NHAI says would help to reduce rising traffic burden along the Belgaum city roads and also reducing the distance by about 10 kms and ensuring smoother traffic flow.
Vehicles will have to pass through Belgaum city to reach Hyderabad highway that commences from the NH4 and goes via Rabkavi, Bijapur, Gulbarga and Hyderabad covering a distance of 600 kms.
Commuters from Goa, Sindhudurg and South Kolhapur district go to Hyderabad via Belgaum due to lesser distance and better road. However, need for a by-pass to Hyderabad has arisen due to the increasing burden on Belgaum city roads.